Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Kadimakara australiensis Lower Triassic, Arcadia Formation, the Crater, Queensland

The incomplete skull found indicates that the animal was about 35 cm long. The estimate was arrived at by comparing it to the Prolacerta from Africa that it resembles. Kadimakara and Prolacerta had hind legs that were longer than their front legs, indicating that they were capable of running upright in bursts of speed. This feature was common in archosaurians, and eventually gave rise to the dinosaurs. It has been suggested the K. australiensis may have been a insectivore.

The skull lacks a lower temporal bar and the lachrymal bone tapers out at the nasal bone, which separates the prefrontal and maxilla bones. Features that fit with Benson's definition (1985), the most recent, a tetraradiate squamosal, and the parasphenoid is accommodated in a gap between the pterygoids.

Links

The Palaeobiology Database

Sources & Further reading

1. Long, John A, 1998, Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand, University of New South Wales Press.